The minotaur was fast, faster than me at least as it charged me with it's horns down. No doubt intending to eviscerate me with the things but I leapt to the side and let it crash into the wall behind me. Rock dust filled the air as the charge broke the wall and sent rock and dust into the air. it wasn't enough to obscure the beasts though as I saw it's silhouette through the cloud and stood at the ready for whatever it did next. Unfortunately I wasn't expecting it's next move as it grabbed a stone and lobbed it at me full force.
"CRACK! OOPH!"
The sound of bones breaking and the air in my lungs getting sent out filled the air as the stone hit me on my right side at the bottom of my ribcage breaking two of them in the process. I fell into a coughing fit that hurt like a motherfucker as my body desperately tried to inhale air. The minotaur drooled and breathed out steam from it's nostrils and started walking towards me since it could likely feel my weakness.
'FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!' I cursed over and over again in my mind trying to find a solution to survive, no TO WIN.
I hate losing, I detest it with every fiber of my being and I was desperate to win, to succeed at this point. And my cursed energy responded as I fell into a foggy state of mind.
"BURN." A simple word escaped my lips like no more than a gentle whisper, then the heat came.
Black and blue cursed flames erupted from me as the temperature of room rose by dozens of degrees in an instant. I was working on pure feral instinct at this point as my pain and the surrounds all stopped being relevant. All that mattered was this foe before me.
The minotaur bellowed angrily and ran towards me but failed to reach me as the flames covering my body burned it merely a foot away from me. It's skin bubbled and flesh charred in an instant as the cursed flames as if alive snaked up it's arm from that briefest of contact and hungrily gorged itself on the meal it found. I swung my weapon and found purchase on it's own ribs as my cursed energy surged in the tiniest moment before impact and the air warped as black lightning sparked.
"Black flash!" I yelled as the minotaurs ribs broke and it spat out a mouthful of blood as one of them pierced it's lung.
It all suddenly felt wrong, the stupidly inefficient way I used my energy, the flow of it in my technique and body. I fixed all of that in an instant and the results were immediate. The flames condensed and turned into a demonic black corona an inch away from my body and weapon but multiple times stronger than before as the stone above me and beneath my feet began to glow white hot and melt at a rapid pace.-
"Hell's forge!" I spoke and the cursed energy repaired my broken ribs and damaged insides in an instant.
I didn't skip an beat and began to wail on the minotaur that hadn't recovered from my first black flash so by the end of my fourth it gave up the ghost, blackened and insides liquified. I didn't even notice that someone had shown up and blacked out as mind zero hit me hard. I may have gotten the enlightenment of black flash but I had gone way beyond my limit on power expenditure and once the minotaur was dead I dropped like a sack of rocks.-
I have no idea how long I was out for but when I came to I heard two female voices talking.
"Any idea what sort of heat would do that? Theres no way a level one could produce such a thing." a mature but young sounding voice said sternly.
"But the proof is all here that says a level one DID produce it! And Ais said he was glowing black the whole time, she doesn't lie and you know it." another younger and more energetic voice argued.
"He's waking up." a new monotone voice said silencing the other two temporarily.
I groaned as I opened my eyes but was confused to see boobs above me and a blonde haired girl looking down as well with a weird mix of curiosity and blankness. I tried to sit up but my head THROBBED in pain at the movement and I groaned.
"You have experienced a bad case of mind zero and may need a few minutes to be able to move." The mature voice said and my gaze flickered in the direction I heard it come from.
There was two people there, a petite short haired amazon with a wide grin and a modestly dressed green haired elf with curiously longer than normal ears.
"Second time in the last two months, this is becoming a bad habit." I said with a chuckle that made my headache spike for a moment.
"Hey hey~ Ais said you were all glowing black and flamy and stuff, what was that?" the eager amazon asked with overflowing curiosity.
"Magic and a bad idea obviously." i said while trying to dig through my bag at my waist without looking for a potion.
"What sort of magic exactly? It's unheard of for a level one to have that much firepower. A level two rarely but not a level one." the elf said in a very know it all fashion.
"No idea, I'm not some scholar on the stuff." I said honestly.
I couldn't even begin to explain why or how the hell anything I did worked when it involved cursed energy, it just did and that was good enough for me. The elf however didn't look happy with my answer but at least seemed to believe me. I smiled as I finally felt a glass vial with my fingers and fished it out of my bag and brought it close to my mouth and ripped out the cork with my teeth and downed the potion.
"You could have just asked for a potion if you needed one, we have some spares." the elf said seriously.
My headache rapidly retreated as the potion took effect and I winced as I sat up. "I have a bad reaction to the normal potions, these are specially made just for me." I explained and she nodded in understanding.
"I'm Tiona! Tiona Hiryute!" the amazon girl introduced herself with a wide smile as she got all up close and personal.
"Alexander Drake, I go by Alex though." I said calmly while stretching since I was stiff.
"I am Riveria Ljos Alf and that is Ais Wallenstein, she was the one who found you towards the end of your fight with the minotaur. An apology is owed to you as we got careless and accidentally sent the monster fleeing to the upper floors where it found you." Riveria said and bowed slightly.
"I assumed as much, the someone scaring it up here part not the you did it part. Speaking of that grilled beef where is it?" I asked looking around and not seeing the corpse.